Functionalized surfaces based on polymers and carbon nanotubes for some biomedical and optoelectronic applications

It has been long recognized that surface properties are of paramount importance for a broad range of materials and a large variety of devices. The recent development of nanoscience and nanotechnology has opened up novel fundamental and applied frontiers in surface functionalization and characterization. At the nanometre scale, the high surface-to-volume ratio characteristic of most nanomaterials has been demonstrated to have a tremendous influence of many fundamental material properties and device performance. In this paper, we present some of the important issues on the surface functionalization and characterization of polymers and carbon nanotubes for certain biomedical and optoelectronic applications and summarize our recent research activities along this line.